Pendennis Castle was built by the Great Western Railway at Swindon in 1924 which makes its visit to the Churnet Valley Railway part of its 100th birthday celebrations!
Beat the now world famous Flying Scotsman in 1925 in a series of trials on the East Coast mainline.
Withdrawal in 1964 it was purchased for preservation and hauled rail tours over the UK national network until it was sold in 1977 to Hamersley Iron in Australia. Pendennis Castle was used to haul excursion trains over their ore-carrying railway in Western Australia.
In October 1994 Pendennis Castle was steamed for the last time. After a 10-week voyage the locomotive touched down on UK soil on the 8th of July, bringing an end to its 23 year stay in Australia.
Pendennis Castle will arrive with us in Staffordshire in the last week of April before starring at our Steam Gala over bank holiday weekend on the 4-6th of May.
The first Castle class locomotive to come to this part of the Midlands.
Builders info… encase you want to build one…
- Boiler Pressure – 225 lbs/sq in
- Coal capacity – 6 Tons
- Water Capacity – 4,000 gallons
- Wheel Diameter – 6ft 8.5 inches
- Weight – 126 tons
- Boiler length – 14ft 10 inches
Finally it is our first large express passenger engine to visit the Churnet Valley since Wadebridge in 2014.